Soft Spot. (delinquent!male x f!reader)

⥽ 6 ⥼

Monday, January 6th, 8:23 AM

(Name) walked down the polished tiles of the school hallway, happy yet also glum to be back to school. Winter break always felt so short-lived, all her days were quick to pass since most of the time she was sleeping in. Hands giddily running up and down the straps of her backpack, she made her way over to her friends' lockers before her first-period class. (Name) did keep in contact with her friends online and even met up with them over the break but not seeing them on a daily made her feel friend-deprived. She thought back to how Ray became a solid member of her friend group, now an active member in their group chats and even coming out to hang out with them.

There was a particularly endearing moment that she remembered, about a week and a half into the winter break when they went out to the neighbourhood park to frolic in the snow. It had snowed rather heavily the day prior and early that morning, the ground had about a foot of freshly fallen snow. Kae had called the whole group, begging them to come out and enjoy the fluffed snow with her. With heavy persuasion, they met up and had a stress-free snow day filled with snowball fights, snow angels, and building snowmen. Additionally, the thought of Corin with a snowball pelted at the back of his head made her giggle to herself, making students who walked past her in the hall eye her warily.

That is until a rather hostile group showed up at the park. They seemed to be in a bad mood at that time, yelling obscenities at (Name) and the group. Normally, the (Name) and her friends would've left without any other warning—none of them could defend themselves from people like that—but this time it was different. Ray jumped off of the ledge of the playground equipment he was resting on and walked over to the group of six strangers, kindly telling them to find someplace else. She remembered the apparent head of the gang swing a punch at Ray, although he had deflected it easily. She remembered him turning around to face them with an easy smile, telling everyone to look away. She remembered herself shielding her eyes off instinct when she heard a loud crunch and a pained groan erupt from where Ray was standing. Some enraged growls were then followed by several pained groans.

Concerned, she opened her eyes to check on Ray's wellbeing—he went head on one against six after all—but noticed that they all looked like they feared for their lives. A few of them were gently holding parts of their bodies, (Name) could tell that their muscles were aching like crazy from that stance. Sometimes she forgot how strong Ray was due to how childish he was around her and her friends. "Now, is there something you guys want to say to my friends?" Ray waved for them to talk with the back of his hand, a triumphant grin spreading from ear to ear. "We're sorry!" they apologized with the most sincerity before hurrying off, not taking another look at Ray. Sobbing, Kae and Jameson treaded over through the thick snow to give Ray a loving hug while wailing words of praise to him. Ray even returned the embrace, holding onto the two like children. The way everyone got along together was an euphoric feeling that struck a note in (Name), every time she thought back to that day never failed to make her smile to herself.

Like right now, for example, lost in thought as she was mindlessly walking down the halls. She almost passed by her friend's locker if not for Iris. A tight set of arms encased her and squeezed her tightly, erasing the daydreams she had and making her totter backwards. "(Name)! Where are you going with that ditzy smile of yours? Are you thinking about your boyfriend again?" Iris looked up from her bent down position, moving her face out of (Name)'s warm chest to look at her slyly. "What boyfriend? Are you fried my good sir?" (Name)'s face morphed from smiley to incredulous, pushing off her friend for claiming such nonsense. "Alright alright, were you thinking of precious little Ray?" she sung, trying to wrap her arms around (Name) again. She hopped to the side—cue a pouting Iris—and shooed her away, "You know, I was gonna walk you to your class but I think I'll just take my leave now. I got home economics across the school." (Name) heard Iris falter and call out for her to reconsider as she walked away, speeding up her pace even more out of spite.